- Course Code
- KL 3553
- Credit Points
- 15
- Course Coordinator
- Mr D Paterson
Pre-requisites
120 credits at level 2 of which 60 must come from Archaeology and/or Scottish Archaeology courses and KL 3050 / KL 3550 Archaeological Theory.
Overview
The course has three distinct stages:
- Stage 1: PROJECT PROPOSAL: students will consider possible projects, considering their aims, the scope of the project, the available literature and key work in the area. Following a brief discussion with the course tutor, each student will be requested to focus the project structure from the "general" to the "specific" prior to the appointment of a supervisor. The end of stage 1 is the submission of a project proposal.
- Stage 2: REPORT ON PREVIOUS WORK. The second stage is a 500 word literature review. This should be kept brief, and can be done as bullet points under headings such as: Previous work on topic (excavation reports etc).
Other relevant work (period syntheses, theoretical and methodological work). - Stage 3: DISSERTATION PLAN
The final stage is the writing of a dissertation plan (1,000 words). This is a more detailed elaboration of the initial proposal, but will incorporate a statement (about 300 words) summarising why the problem/project is worth pursuing (including a list of references read); what the study aims to do and why; how it will be done and what techniques will be used to obtain and analyse the anticipated data; a programme of work should be included.
At this stage, students must also estimate what facilities might be required to assist in their Dissertation work and establish that these facilities are available.
Structure
4 Ninety minute group seminar workshops fortnightly, interspersed with meetings/telephone conference calls with students either singly or in small groups as their work progresses , plus directed learning.
Assessment
1st Attempt: Three submitted pieces of work: Project Porposal (c 500 words); Report on previous work (c500 words); Dissertation Plan (c 1,000 words) Equally weighted 100%.
Resit: Resubmission of failing section.
Formative Assessment
Formative assessment takes place in the group tutorials which involve an element of group discussion on topics proposed.
Feedback
As the course is delivered flexibly, and many students are not present in person, most formative feedback is done by e mail exchanges with the course tutor or programme co-ordinator.
Feedback on summative assessments is provided on assessment section of MyAberdeen, where all written work is submitted. Tutors are requested to give feedback for Focus on topic, Content, Argument, Structure, Use of learning resources, Referencing & quotations. The schedule for feedback is such that students have summative feedback before they need to submit their next piece of work.